Insurers look to hike Obamacare premiums by an average of 8%

By Russ Britt

Insurers in more than half of all states have submitted Obamacare rate-hike requests for 2015, and it looks like the typical premium increase will be slightly north of 8%, according to a report released Tuesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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The consultancy’s Health Research Institute says the typical 8.2% increase translates to average monthly premiums of roughly $385 without subsidies provided under the Affordable Care Act. Within that is a wide range of price changes for individual carriers, ranging from a 23% drop for a nonprofit cooperative covering Arizona to a 50% jump for an Arkansas policy.

The institute has compiled rate-hike request filings for 29 states and the District of Columbia. Regulators have yet to rule on what requests will be granted.

Although one insurer in Arizona plans to drop rates 23%, that state won’t give the biggest overall break to consumers. Rather, Arizona is expected to see average rate hikes of 11.2%, among the highest in the nation.

Instead, rates could drop in Oregon by an average of 2.5%, if regulators agree, the institute says. The smallest increase is expected to be in Maine, where rates are going up 1.7%, the institute says.

While that 50% hike in Arkansas is the highest for an individual carrier, the state with the highest overall planned rate hike right now is Indiana, where insurers are seeking an average increase of 15.4%. Arkansas still is up there, with planned rate increases of nearly 12% on average.

The institute says Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans have asked for rate hikes typically more than 9% throughout the country.

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